Snap’s Rise and Fall: How a Big, Splashy IPO Prompted the Doubters to Keep Mum

Re:Snap’s Rise and Fall: How a Big, Splashy IPO Prompted the... by wpietri on Saturday November 11, 2017 @05:45PM (#15678610)

> Why are we so obsessed with the ads model. Why not start charging?

Short answer: Metcalfe's law. "Metcalfe's law states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n2)." [1]

Social networks are valuable to the extent that the people you want to talk to are on it. Charging raises a huge barrier to entry, making it very hard to create a large network.

They could try charging by usage, as with SMS, but that's hard when key competitors are free. They could also try charging for premium features, but that could hurt user growth and it's tricky to find the right basket of features that will really get people to pay.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law

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Re:Snap’s Rise and Fall: How a Big, Splashy IPO Prompted the... by runeks on Sunday November 12, 2017 @03:04AM (#15680132)

> Charging raises a huge barrier to entry, making it very hard to create a large network.

Is this because digital payments are cumbersome, or are people really unwilling to drop 50 cents/mo on something they find valuable?

Imagine getting 3 months of Snap usage for free, and having the ability to make a 50 cent payment as easy as dropping two quarters in a tip jar. Would this still be a huge barrier to entry?

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Re:Snap’s Rise and Fall: How a Big, Splashy IPO Prompted the... by selectodude on Sunday November 12, 2017 @03:37AM (#15680202)

There is not a chance in hell I would pay to put a photo on Snapchat, and I’m of their core demographic that can actually afford to.

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Re:Snap’s Rise and Fall: How a Big, Splashy IPO Prompted the... by noncoml on Sunday November 12, 2017 @12:34PM (#15681634)

Would you pay $1 a month to not see ads and not have your data be sent to third party companies?

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Re:Snap’s Rise and Fall: How a Big, Splashy IPO Prompted the... by wpietri on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @12:48AM (#15692969)

That's not really a winning value proposition. The first part won't resonate broadly; the bulk of America is perfectly comfortable seeing ads. And the second part raises a question they desperately don't want to raise: what are big companies doing with all that personal data?

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Re:Snap’s Rise and Fall: How a Big, Splashy IPO Prompted the... by diminish on Sunday November 12, 2017 @02:10AM (#15680028)

To add - earlier WhatsApp and other messaging was seen by most adopters as a free SMS replacement.

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Re:Snap’s Rise and Fall: How a Big, Splashy IPO Prompted the... by retailbuyout on Sunday November 12, 2017 @09:23AM (#15680929)

Nobody is preventing them from offering either ads OR a subscription service.

Hey if they discover it too late, that’s on them!

At their size, there are few changes that will help user growth without improving content.... goood luck with that.

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